RUGBY REPORTS: Ivybridge suffer first defeat of 2018, but joy for Oaks and OPMs

IVYBRIDGE suffered their first defeat of 2018 when they were beaten 23-16 by struggling Hornets on the Somerset club’s artificial surface at Hutton Moor.

The Bridgers went 10-3 up in the South West Premier League match with a Luke Martell penalty and then a converted try by player-coach Lewis Paterson.

But Hornets levelled the contest just before the break and then scored a winning try in the second period while the visitors were down to 14 men for 10 minutes.

Ivybridge’s second half points came from penalties by Martell and a long-range effort by Mitch Pinkus.

The win moved Hornets of the foot off the table and has given them hope of closing the gap on the teams in front of them. It was the Somerset club’s second successive home win, having beaten Exmouth in the last game at Hutton Moor.

“It was very frustrating,” said Ivybridge coach Paterson. “It was just one of those games where we didn’t put the nails into the coffin. We had territory but we just did not convert it into points.

“However, fair play to Hornets, they really are good at home.

“I said at half-time that we had given them hope and they were going to come out firing and that is exactly what they did. They took their points well. They have a very young goalkicker and he seemed to hit everything whenever we made a mistake.

“When they had a young kicker like that we really needed to improve our discipline.

“But we came away with a point. I know they were bottom of the league but they have turned over some good teams at home so we always knew it would be a big challenge.

“It now has to be a learning curve to move forward again. Things are not always going to go our way and, hopefully, we can learn from it and build for next week.”